Doctor Who in Review: Robot of Sherwood

WARNING: SPOILERS

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Now that that's out of the way...

I wasn't sure what to expect going into this episode. I've really enjoyed the darker Doctor up until now, the more serious doctor, so I'll admit: I had my reservations ever since seeing the sneak peak at the spoon/sword fight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7U09LLdN-g

But I was pleasantly surprised! The whole episode is wonderfully campy. From the witty banter, to the generic villainy, to the gold platters somehow reflecting death rays, this episode was genuinely a fun--and funny--romp through Sherwood Forest.

Capaldi flippin' off ole' Robin Hood just because

I loved the actor who played Robin Hood. His overly cheery attitude and 'laugh at everything' personality paired really well with an especially crotchety Capaldi, who was determined to prove that Robin Hood wasn't real.

Their chemistry during captivity was definitely a thing of beauty.

Robin: "If you had not betrayed me, I would have been triumphant." Doctor: "You would have been a little puff of smoke and ashes. You would have been floating around in tiny little laughing bits--in people's goblets."

Robin: "Balderdash. Ha!" Doctor: "Oh right, here we go. It's laughing time." Robin: "Well, you amuse me, grey old man." Doctor: "Guards! He's laughing again! You can't keep me locked up with a laughing person!"

The sheriff was also pretty perfect. Honestly, I felt most characters were cast pretty wonderfully for an actual Robin Hood movie. I loved when the sheriff revealed his plans to Clara.

Sheriff: "I shall be the most powerful man in the realm--king in all but name, for Nottingham is not enough." Clara: "It isn't?" Sheriff: "After this: Darby" Clara: "...right." Sheriff: "Then! Lincoln. And after Lincoln..." Clara: "Worksop?" Sheriff: "The world!"

We're seeing a continuing theme of the Doctor relearning who he is. In "Into the Dalek" he's reminded that he can do better. He almost settles for giving up on the 'good' dalek, but Clara reminds him he can do so much more. In "Robot of Sherwood," he realizes that he really is a hero, trying to do good and help people along the way, despite his insistence to the contrary. Robin Hood holding himself up as a mirror to the Doctor did a great job solidifying this point toward the end of the episode.

Speaking of the ending...

It was pretty terrible--the part with the gold arrow, that is. Probably the only part of the episode I had any kind of big problem with. A golden arrow hitting the outside of the ship somehow powers the engines... this idea on its own was terrible. But the fact that all the ship needed was, what, a cup-worth of gold in order to get into orbit? They had a GIANT CAULDRON of molten gold in the dungeons! It made no sense for them to even try to leave at that point. After the riot, everybody fled the castle. The robots could have sealed up the place, finished making their gold parts, and left. This ending sequence skipped right through campy and into absurdity. But hey, Doctor Who isn't quite Doctor Who without some absurdity every now and again. Note: Someone over at the Gallifrey subreddit came up with a much better sequence for the climax of the episode

No appearance by Missy this episode, but that's all right. For the best, actually. I imagine she'd get pretty boring showing up each episode to whisk someone away to her Heaven. The Promised Land coming up again, though, I was seriously not expecting. I figured that had just been part of the cyborg backstory for "Deep Breath" and that'd be that. But now that we've had the repeated emphasis on the Promised Land, it looks like it's more connected to Missy's heaven than I originally thought. In "Deep Breath," it seemed as if Missy's 'Heaven' was just close enough to what the half-faced man meant by 'Promised Land,' so it fit him. But now that we have another instance of machines searching for the Promised Land, I'm thinking Missy is much more directly connected with the idea. She's not just in some place she calls Heaven, not just taking advantage of the half-faced man's desires. She's somehow behind or involved with this Promised Land itself.

Oh, and a final mention: the episode actually opens with Capaldi at the chalkboard again! After repeated appearances (in all three episodes so far) those gibberish calculations will definitely be something important by the end of this season. I'm still holding out hope they're a cheap and quick way to show that the Doctor has been working on calculations to find Gallifrey for the whole season.

What were your favorite moments in the episode? Did you like the campiness of it all? Or was it a bit too much for you?